Seminoles beat Gators for first time in seven years

November 27, 2010|by Andrew Carter, Orlando Sentinel

TALLAHASSEE — The crowd, most of it anyway, remained standing and loud. The Florida State band blared. Seminoles players held their helmets high, with pride. It was a chaotic scene at Doak Campbell Stadium in the moments after Florida State's 31-7 victory. A chaotic, jubilant scene. Amid all of it, Christian Ponder somehow found Jimbo Fisher.

Ponder had been looking for his coach.

"I was planning on giving him a big hug," Ponder said later.

That's what he did. The two embraced.

There were tears in Ponder's eyes. In his final game at Doak Campbell Stadium, he had just thrown for 221 yards and three touchdowns to lead Florida State to its first victory against Florida in seven years. And now the emotion came out of him.

Fisher said later he told Ponder "I loved him."

"And he said he loved me," Fisher said. "And I said I loved coaching him. And I'm just so happy for him. Because he can be cemented now as one of the great Florida State quarterbacks of all time."

Ponder won't win the Heisman Trophy, like Charlie Ward or Chris Weinke. He won't leave Florida State (9-3) with a bundle of passing records. But he will leave with a victory against Florida in his final home game – and with the assurance that he helped lead the Seminoles to their finest regular season in six years.

Florida State had absorbed six consecutive losses against the Gators (7-5) – the last three of which were humiliating, embarrassing affairs. But in the final minutes here on Saturday, senior linebacker Kendall Smith held a plastic gator head in the air and waved it around like a trophy while fans behind the Florida State bench went wild.

And later, college kids in the student section were so energized they ripped out rows of bleachers from the cement and tossed them over the railing and onto the field.

"It's a feeling you can't explain, man," junior Florida State linebacker Nigel Bradham said. "By beating them by so many points and knowing that you had the game won – and knowing that Maryland was winning, we pretty much was just so excited that … You can't explain the words for the excitement."

Maryland's victory against N.C. State sent Florida State to the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game. But the Seminoles were too busy savoring their victory against Florida to think too much about that.

The Seminoles trailed 7-3 in the first quarter before scoring the final 28 points of the game. They held Florida to 276 yards and never allowed the Gators back into the game after building a 24-7 halftime lead.

"Obviously, we are down a little bit," he said. "I didn't believe we'd be that far down but we are."

And afterward, Fisher emphasized how this victory could just be the beginning of greater things. He praised a senior class that experienced so much in its time – but never a victory against the Gators.

"What they've been through the last four years here and all the controversy from the academics [scandal] to the coaching changes – things that they had no control over," Fisher said. "… That's a special group of seniors that's going out."

And it went out with a long-awaited victory against Florida – one that had been a long time coming. Afterward, Ponder was asked about the ACC championship game next week. On Monday, he said, the Seminoles would start watching film.